Illinois basketball delivered a great victory on Saturday, taking down the No. 14 ranked Wisconsin Badgers.
From the tip, the Illini had control in the game. The Badgers weren’t hitting shots, and Illinois’ suffocating defense was just too much. Despite a small surge in the second half, Illinois ended up pulling away and winning the game 75-60.
Here are four observations from the Illini win over Wisconsin.
1. Three-point defense prevailed
Coming into the game on Saturday, Wisconsin was not only one of the best three-point shooting teams in the nation, but they were also more reliant on the three-point shot than a vast majority of the country.
35.6-percent of Wisconsin’s points have been coming from three-point range in each game this season. That is a ton of production from distance. On top of most of the Badgers points coming from three-point range, they were also hitting their deep shots at a clip of 37.6-percent entering the game against the Illini.
Illinois clearly came in with a mindset of stopping Wisconsin from the three-point arc. The Badgers failed to make a single three-point shot in the first half, going 0-of-9 from distance. This put Wisconsin in a 13-point hole at halftime.
The second half wasn’t much better for the Badgers either. While three-pointers were falling a little more frequently, they still struggled mightily. Wisconsin, for the game, shot 4-of-24 from three-point range, which comes out to 16.7-percent.
What caused Wisconsin to shoot so badly on Saturday against the Illini? I believe it was Illinois’ great defense that did the trick.
Against Indiana, the Illini were not closing out on defenders and they were lazy with working around screens. That changed against the Badgers. Illinois made an effort to put their hands up and closeout strong on Wisconsin’s three-point shooters. We also worked through screens instead of around them.
Illinois did everything right on the defensive end of the court on Saturday. This is why we ended up beating Wisconsin by 15 points.